A cellular network provides the possibility of arranging a conference call connection between several callers. A conference call means a call set up between three or more participants, in which everyone can talk to all other participants and also hear the voice of all other participants. A conference call is a very useful characteristic by which it is possible to arrange telephone meetings, for example, quickly and easily. A conference call is started by first establishing a telephone connection between two participants. After this, one of the callers opens a new telephone connection to a third participant and joins this to the conference call. This process is repeated so many times that all participants have been joined in.
In practice, the method described above for establishing a conference call is very slow and cumbersome. In addition, it requires that the caller knows the properties of the telephone very well in order to open new telephone connections and to join them to the existing ones successfully. Many telephone users are not even aware of the possibility to use conference calls, because it is not in any way presented on a conventional telephone user interface. Because of the difficulties related to establishing a conference call, the use of these calls has been relatively rare, although in many communication situations it would be clearly the most expedient and efficient form of a telephone call.